Easy Chocolate Cake

I made this chocolate cake for a birthday a couple of months ago. It was so easy to make, but also smelled delicious and apparently tasted good too! I love making cupcakes, I don’t have much experience with making bigger cakes so I was very happy with how this turned out in the end. The recipe I used is here, but as usual I’m also typing it out for you to follow. The decoration with chocolate flakes on top was my idea, so it wasn’t just a plain chocolate cake, but you can decorate it however you like. By the way I would read Step 6 first – that was actually the first step I did!

You will need:

225g Plain Flour

350g Caster Sugar

85g Cocoa Powder

1 1/2 tsp Baking Powder

1 1/2 tsp Bicarbonate of Soda

2 Free-Range Eggs

250ml Milk

125ml Vegetable Oil

2 tsp Vanilla Extract

250ml Boiling Water

200g Plain Chocolate

200ml Double Cream

1. Preheat the oven to Gas Mark 4/180/350. Grease and line two 20cm sandwich tins.

2. Place all of the cake ingredients, except the boiling water, into a large mixing bowl. Using a wooden spoon/electric whisk, beat the mixture until smooth and well combined.

3. Add the boiling water to the mixture, a little at a time, until smooth. The cake mixture will be very liquid.

4. Divide the cake batter between the sandwich tins and bake in the oven for 25-35 minutes, or until the top is firm to the touch and a skewer into the cake comes out clean.

5. Remove the cakes from the oven and allow to cool completely in their tins.

6. For the chocolate icing, heat the chocolate and cream in a saucepan over a low heat until the chocolate melts. Remove from the heat and whisk the mixture until smooth. glossy and thickened. Set aside to cool for 1-2 hours, or until thick enough to spread over the cake.

7. To assemble the cake, run a round bladed knife around the inside of the cake tins to loosen the cakes. Carefully remove the cakes from the tins.

8. Spread a little chocolate icing over the top of one of the cakes, then carefully top with the other cake.

9. Transfer the cake to a serving plate and ice the cake all over with the chocolate icing, using a palette knife.